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Dankwambo meets Obasanjo, says Buhari can’t effect desired change

By Seye Olumide (Lagos) and Charles Coffie Gyamfi (Abeokuta)
15 August 2018   |   3:15 am
Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday held a three-hour closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State. After the meeting at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Dankwambo declined to disclose what he discussed with the ex-president. The Senate…

Ibrahim Dankwambo

Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday held a three-hour closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

After the meeting at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Dankwambo declined to disclose what he discussed with the ex-president.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had a day earlier (Monday) held a similar secrete meeting with Obasanjo at the same venue.

In the last one moth, about four presidential aspirants have visited Obasanjo, all of them seeking his blessings for their ambition.

Immediately Dankwambo emerged from the meeting, he rushed to the Park Inn Hotel, a few metres away, where he held another meeting with the Ladi Adebutu faction of the PDP, after which he spoke to awaiting journalists, assuring that he would provide quality and effective leadership if elected.

He said his administration would declare war on poverty and injustice.

The Gombe governor condemned the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government for “failing” to provide the positive change it promised Nigerians.

“We were all shouting that we wanted change but we didn’t ask how he (President Buhari) wanted to change the whole thing from negative to positive. Is he even qualified to make the change?” he queried.

Dankwambo solicited the cooperation and support of his party faithful, saying he could not achieve his aim without them.

“Nobody can do it alone, but when you understand the people you want to serve, you are going to give them the best.

I didn’t know there are potholes in Ogun State because there is no pothole in Gombe State. Victory in 2019 is coming to our party PDP.

“I have been a governor for seven years now and I am the only governor that came back the second time.

We have provided leadership before and we are still going to do more of it.

We have developed economic blueprint, we will share it, we are still looking at the event. I will provide the leadership Nigerians want”.

Dankwambo, who also addressed delegates of the PDP for the 2019 presidential primary election in Lagos, told them it was not out of place for Nigerians to sit down and renegotiate the federation, judging by what is currently happening in the country.

He said he was on the same page with politicians on the issue of restructuring.

“Anybody that sees and feels what is happening would know that Nigeria needs a better arrangement for it to function better.”

The governor, however, said renegotiating the federation did not necessarily mean we should break up, but to deliberate on how we can better improve our relationship, economy and polity.

He promised to look critically into the nation’s economy and security situation, which he said were not properly managed by the present government, if elected.

“I will replicate, in a far better manner, what I did for nearly eight years in my state, Gombe.”

The governor identified three major areas he will first tackle if given the party’s ticket and eventually wins the election.

“ Absence of quality leadership where balance decision is also absent has created more problems for Nigeria than before.

“Going by my credentials and my contributions to the development of the country in the administrations of erstwhile presidents Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, I have what it takes to bail Nigeria out of its present quagmire.”

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